Sunday, November 2, 2008

Yes, I rarely blog about nonfiction books. But this one really captured my attention. I’ve always been fascinated with computer and Internet history.Especially when I found out people were online & communicating long before most of us. We tend to think the history of something begins when we encounter it for the first time (sort of egotistical of us).

Anyway, here are some cool facts that I discovered in this book:

*Many people think that the Internet was created to communicate during a nuclear strike – not so.

*People were using Internet forums in the early 80’s

*In 1980, big name newspapers went online in an experiment

*The first novel uploaded to the Internet (before the book was even published) was Ender’s Game in 1983

*Online games were in use the mid 80’s

*The first public Internet service provider opened in 1989

Wow! Can you believe all that was going on in the 80’s & more!

Most of people think of the Internet and the Web as interchangeable terms, but the World Wide Web really began with Tim Berners-Lee and his HTML, which he developed in 1990.

Anyway, there were way more people and companies involved with the evolution of the Internet than most of us realize. This book details all of the main points along the way. And it has a great foreword by Orson Scott Card.

If you are at all curious about the development & history of the Internet, you’ll love this book. There is also a timeline and glossary at the back.

It’s fascinating!

Plus, on the website there is a long list of early 80’s commercials for Internet service providers, like Prodigy and other services like DELPHI and playnet. It’s really fun watching those old videos. Don’t you love going back in time!